UMass/Dartmouth officials continue to stonewall on the issue of releasing information on the records of four students now in custody in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing.

The taxpayers, whose hard-earned dollars keep the place in business, should be outraged.

“We are prohibited from releasing such records by [the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act],” insisted school spokesman John Hoey. “Our interpretation of the law indicates that that information is confidential.”

Note that little “our interpretation” caveat.

As a naturalized citizen, accused Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was eligible both for reduced in-state tuition and for student aid — which, the school boasts on its website, 84 percent of students actually receive. (An independent website says 92 percent of UMass/Dartmouth students get some form of aid.) So it’s a safe assumption Tsarnaev was majoring in terrorism while being subsidized by the taxpayers. One published report indicates he might have owed the school as much as $20,000 (in-state tuition plus room and board come to about $22,000 a year). Hoey confirmed in general that students with that large an outstanding balance would be allowed to register while awaiting financial aid. He again would not confirm those were the facts in Tsarnaev’s case.

We know he was living in the Pine Dale Residence Hall (because the FBI told us in its affidavit filed in federal court and because the dorm was ordered evacuated on the Friday after the bombing when Tsarnaev was identified as Suspect No. 2). The dorm also houses the International Student & Scholar Center.

In fact Pine Dale’s where Tsarnaev’s buddies, Dias Kadyrbayev, Azamat Tazhayakov, both Kazakhstan nationals, and Cambridge resident Robel Phillipos went to scoop up his laptop, his backpack and some empty fireworks tubes before police could search the dorm room.

By all accounts all four 19-year-olds, who became buddies at the school in 2011, weren’t what you would call stand-out students. But we don’t know that for sure because UMass/Dartmouth officials are withholding those records. The New York Times has reported that Tsarnaev had failed seven classes in three semesters, but again school officials won’t violate his “privacy” to confirm that.

Phillipos had already dropped out, reportedly Kadyrbayev had flunked out and Tazhayakov has been suspended while his obstruction-of-justice charges are pending.

The school notes on its website that foreign students aren’t eligible for student aid and they have to pay the full $23,000 in out-of-state tuition ($33,000 with room and board), which means kids like Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov are pretty much cash cows for UMass/Dartmouth — which also explains why school officials might want to keep those academic records private. One published report questioned whether Kadyrbayev had successfully completed high school.

It might also explain why the school, according to an independent website, has a four-year graduation rate of 30 percent and a six-year graduation rate of 48 percent. About one in four kids admitted never makes it past freshman year. So much for our tax dollars at work.

But being among the 10,000 American schools allowed to accept foreign students — there are an estimated 850,000 here on student visas — obviously has its advantages. And if some kids from oil-rich Kazakhstan want to come and major in partying for a couple of years, well, what’s the harm, right?

There is a level of moral bankruptcy at play here — not just on the part of these “students” — and we do use the word loosely. Yes, these three, had they spoken up instead of covering up, might have saved the life of MIT police officer Sean Collier and saved the community 24 hours of trauma.

But there is also a kind of moral bankruptcy on the part of university officials who are now complicit in withholding records that might reflect as badly on the administration of this school as they do on the former students now in federal custody.